Linkee-poo Tuesday Feb 8

The Tobias Buckell's… "The Kidneystone Relief Bundle." Eight of his e-books for $8, an IndiGoGo fundraiser to cover his medical costs.

"So, after he handwrote his latest story during Christmas break — The Adventures of Dillon Helbig's Crismis by Dillon Helbig 'His Self' (as it appears on the cover) — he hatched a plan to slip the book onto the shelves of the local library… From a distance, the 81-page hardbound burgundy notebook looks just enough like a normal library book that Dillon felt he could sneak it in without much hassle. On a recent trip to the library with his grandmother, he put his plan into action."

"Many of the world's largest companies are failing to take significant enough steps to meet their pledges to vastly reduce the impact of their greenhouse gas emissions in the decades ahead… That's the conclusion of a new report by the NewClimate Institute, an environmental organization that works to combat global warming. Its researchers, who examined the actions of 25 companies, concluded that many of them are misleading consumers by using accounting practices that make their environmental goals relatively meaningless or are excluding key parts of their businesses in their calculations." This is my shocked face.

"NASA has selected Lockheed Martin to build a small rocket that will transport samples collected by the Perseverance rover into orbit around Mars… The agency said Feb. 7 it awarded a contract valued at up to $194 million to Lockheed to develop the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV), an essential element of the overall Mars Sample Return campaign being developed by NASA and the European Space Agency."

"In November 2019, Alessandra Mascaro was observing a community of chimpanzees in the Loango National Park in Gabon as part of her volunteer service with the Ozouga Chimpanzee Project when she noticed some unusual behavior. A chimp named Suzee was inspecting a wound on the foot of her son, Sia. Suzee suddenly caught an insect from a nearby leaf, put it into her mouth for a moment, and then pressed it to Sia's wound."

"Paradoxical kinesia refers to the sudden ability of a person with Parkinson's to move quickly and fluidly, the way they did before the disease eroded a brain area involved in movement." This is something I've used in my own practice. I had a Parkinson's patient that we needed to get some x-rays on. I was told by the patient, the patient's spouse, and the doctor (that had accompanied the patient) that it might be impossible to get imaging because of his tremors. I found out the patient loved to fly-fish. So I walked them through a guided meditation of sorts and had them imaging being in their favorite river casting flies. Their tremors went away as long as I was talking about fishing, asking them to imagine being there, telling me how the river felt, the line in the water, casting. And when we were done, they were calm for a few minutes before the tremors came back. This is why listening to those small bits of information are worth while.

"A paralysed man with a severed spinal cord has been able to walk again, thanks to an implant developed by a team of Swiss researchers… It is the first time someone who has had a complete cut to their spinal cord has been able to walk freely… The same technology has improved the health of another paralysed patient to the extent that he has been able to become a father."

"But the therapy is expensive, risky and technically demanding. It remains a last resort, to be used when all other treatments have failed. Despite the treatment’s success for Olson, not everyone experiences durable remission of their cancer. In the beginning, only about 25–35% of CAR-T-cell recipients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia experienced a complete remission of their cancer, says Porter. With refinement, that percentage has increased over the years, he says, but some of these initial successes still lead to relapse. Tracking the treatment long-term could reveal clues as to what factors are important for lasting CAR-T-cell success."

"A 17-year-old has been arrested in connection to the search warrant that led to the death of Amir Locke, a 22-year-old who was shot and killed by Minneapolis police officers executing a 'no-knock' search warrant." Shifting blame.

"The auto market is still reeling after the pandemic completely upended the balance of supply and demand… Carmakers have had to cut their output as they struggle to find critical materials such as chips, creating a shortage of vehicles that has caused ripple effects through new and used markets… And it's not just how many vehicles they're producing, but what kinds. Automakers have responded to the shortages by focusing on their most profitable cars, meaning the priciest ones."

"The governor of the Bank of England has sparked serious backlash after telling Britons they should not ask for a pay raise this year, even as the country grapples with its greatest cost of living crisis in decades… British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and workers unions have been among those to decry Andrew Bailey, who last week said that employees should not pressure their bosses into boosting wages as the economy needs time to recalibrate amid soaring inflation."

"Amazon is dramatically increasing salary caps for its US-based technology and corporate workforce, in a nod to how the pandemic has exacerbated an already fierce competition for talent nationwide… The e-commerce and cloud computing giant announced in an internal blog post Monday that the company's maximum base pay in the United States is more than doubling, to $350,000 a year from $160,000."

"SoftBank's record-breaking sale of a prized chip designer to Nvidia has officially been called off… At an initial value of $40 billion, the US chipmaker's acquisition of British design firm ARM would have been the largest semiconductor deal on record."

"Not every hobby needs to be a side hustle. But, if you set out to make money off of yours – congratulations, you're running a business! Now you have to pay attention to finances."

"After protesters hounded Britain's opposition leader Keir Starmer, Prime Minister Boris Johnson came underheavy pressure on Tuesday to withdraw a claim that Starmer had failed to prosecute one of the country's most notorious child abusers… As Johnson apologised to parliament for the parties on Jan. 31, he falsely claimed Starmer had failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile, a late TV star who abused hundreds of children, during his time as Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP)."

"Dr. Eric Lander, a top science adviser to President Biden, resigned Monday night. His resignation comes hours after White House press secretary Jen Psaki confirmed he had been investigated over a complaint that he mistreated staff."

"The so-called 'Freedom Convoy' that arrived in Ottawa more than a week ago to protest the Canadian government's vaccine mandate for cross-border truckers has been honking horns, blocking downtown streets and disturbing residential neighborhoods… They faced little pushback from law enforcement until this weekend, when officials in the Canadian capital ramped up their response by ticketing protesters, confiscating their fuel and declaring a state of emergency." So much for the "peaceful protest" myth.

Meanwhile, on Bullshit Mountain… "CNN calls Freedom Convoy protest 'sedition,' 'threat to democracy'."

"The U.S. Supreme Court further undercut the Voting Rights Act on Monday, blocking for now the creation of a second majority-Black congressional district in Alabama for the 2022 election… The court's action came on an emergency appeal from Alabama, which challenged a decision by a three-judge federal court panel that included two Trump appointees. The lower court concluded that under the Voting Rights Act, Alabama, a state with a population that is more than one-quarter Black, could reasonably, and therefore must, create two majority-Black districts out of seven congressional districts."

"The National Archives and Records Administration NARA said it has retrieved 15 boxes of White House records and other items that were stored at former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago property instead of at the National Archives… As first reported by The Washington Post, the documents retrieved last month from the Florida property contained important records of communication along with Trump's self-described 'love letters' with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, as well as a letter addressed to Trump from his predecessor, former President Barack Obama." Add it to the list.